Depends on the source… Page 2 of NOAA charts lists St. Lucie Inlet as mouth of the Indian River. www.charts.noaa.gov/BookletChart/11474_BookletChart.pdf Much of the waterway south of that is only wide enough for the intercostal. No room for much sailing (depending on wind direction.)

no motor - depended on the wind predicted by weather forecasts

@@HuckLBeri AH, nice! There are always nice people on the water for a tow. I'm guessing you had a little emergency water-proof floatable walkie-talkie with marine channel.

That would have been the smart thing to do! Phone service worked at times, but it was spotty. There were plenty of other boats around us except when we were on the ocean side.

The no-see-ums and mosquitos were terrible from dusk to dawn. No other bugs to my knowledge. It was very warm for December. If it gets cold, I understand the bugs are not bad.

@@HuckLBeri Ah, ok, that's brutal, you could always eat Deet-Brownies 🙂

Had no takers so I'm still sailing it when I can. Had it out a couple of times in the last month in high winds. Got it moving over 19 mph!

If you’re ever still interested in selling, please let me know.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Ocean Kayak Prowler 15 and Native Watercraft Ultimate 16

10-14 knots would be great for traveling quickly and still safely. Most of our trip it was single digits, so it was slow going at times. Of course more wind also means bigger seas especially on the outside of the islands.

The nice thing about the 18 is that is almost never pitchpoles. I've only turned over twice. Once on a downwind jibe during a squall when I first got the boat, but I was in shallow water that prevent turtling. So I started tying the fender to the mast. I turned it over on purpose to try it out along with a righting pole set up that I made and was able to right the Hobie by myself. I was in deep water and the fender held the mast near the surface while I connected the righting pole.

We brought backpacking gear but used dry bags instead of packs. We included tents, air mattresses, sleeping bags, hiking stove, dehydrated dinners, other dried foods, etc. We also brought our own fresh water - one gallon per person per day. Oh - and don't forget the bug spray for night and sun shade/screen for daytime. We also brought snorkel gear and a fishing pole.

Glad you enjoyed it

Very cool!

Thanks for the idea!

Just saw this for the first time ! Yes I also would like to see that & your on the trailer rigging . I have winged H18 also . Using different style pvc wing support . Great video !

Nor would I, but that is the official name of the lagoon , "The Indian River." It was named by the Spanish, "Rio de Ais" for the Native American people who lived around it and depended on it. The Haulover canal connects the Indian River to the Mosquito Lagoon. So I chose the northern most spot of the Indian River where Turnbull Creek runs into it to start my journey and the place where it feeds into the St. Lucie Inlet to end the journey since the intercostal south of there is no longer considered the Indian River. As to saltwater, there are areas and seasons where the salt content is more or less than the ocean. But fresh ocean water itself never reaches much of the lagoon north of Grant. I spoke to an Oceanography professor at Florida Tech who is doing research to help convince authorities to provide an ocean connection at or near Port Canaveral to help clean the Banana and Indian River Lagoons.

@@HuckLBeri dude I've been saying it for years the water needs to be able to get out. I know it's not the roots of the problem but at this point you need triage while you address the roots of the problems. Especially given how long all these mitigation projects take.

Holy Cow! Glad we didn't see anything like that. Not what you paddle into the wilderness to experience!

We did put some items in the hauls through the hatches, but it was limited by their diameters. Don't know if larger hatches exist.

That would make a really awesome adventure catamaran. Lets start a pocket-expedition catamaran company based on the Hobie 18 rigging! (basically new hulls)

LOL... that might just work! My wife calls me Huck because she says that if we lived on the Mississippi, she'd find me floating down the river on a raft. I call her Beri - so that's where Huck L. Beri came from. Glad you enjoyed the video. Your Dad is very proud of you. He spoke about your channel a lot while we were sailing.

No, but I row kayaks and paddle boards regularly. My buddy's ability to do this was more impressive. He had never really rowed before, but he is a swimmer. The real trick was to row with the tide and with the wind whenever possible. After studying the forecast and tide charts, we picked the route direction (counter-clockwise) for that reason.

SV Avocet - thanks for the comment - honored that you would watch my little voyage. I love your videos - they are done with such professionalism!